Steve Welch's campaign is in the process of revising the candidate's financial disclosure to reflect his accurate net worth, which is between $6 million and $23 million, according to his campaign. Welch campaign manager Brendan Benner said the candidate had accidentally checked on the disclosure indicating that he held more than $50 million in an escrow account when he should have marked the box between $1 million and $5 million. The bottom line: He's still wealthy, just not quite on the scale he had originally indicated.

UPDATE: Tuesday, Oct. 27

Steve Welch's campaign says the candidate made a rather large error on the financial disclosure he filed earlier this month -- to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. The report indicated that he held more than $50 million in an escrow account, a figure that Welch's campaign manager said is wrong. They're circling back and I'll update with their revised numbers as soon as I get them.

It's been known for some time that the 6th Congressional District battle in Pennsylvania sets up as a wealthy contest, with two top candidates willing to self-fund their campaigns. But how rich has been a guessing game -- until now.

Financial disclosures filed by Democrat Doug Pike and Republican Steven Welch -- two of the hopefuls vying for U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach's seat -- show both candidates to be multi-millionaires, with Welch in a league of his own.

Welch, who founded a biotech company fresh out of college a decade ago, has assets worth at least $55 million, his disclosure shows. The assets are listed as a wide range under disclosure rules -- with lawmakers and candidates only required to itemize assets within certain ranges. Primary residences are not included.

Through the first nine months of this year, Welch earned $163,148 in salary from Parker Hannifin, an engineering firm, as well as $36,351 in what is attributed as an "installment sale income," probably related to the purchase of Mitos Group, the firm Welch founded.

Pike, a former Philadelphia Inquirer writer whose father served in Congress, is a digit less wealthy, but could hardly be considered poor. He reported assets worth between $2.1 million and $4.8 million.

Pike's only non-interest income this year was a $800 research and writing fee from the University of Pennsylvania.

Neither candidate has been shy about hitting up their cash reserves to give themselves a fundraising head start over a crew of other hopefuls. Pike had given his campaign account $620,000 of the $902,000 that it had raised through Sept. 30. Welch loaned himself $500,000 during the period and raised $59,000, as Pa2010.com reported earlier this month.

Pike and Welch are among a handful of candidates vying for the seat. Democrat Manan Trivedi, who has yet to file a financial disclosure, had given himself $13,000 and loaned himself $6,000 through Sept. 30 and raised an additional $109,000.

Republican Curt Schroder, a state House member, had raised $109,000 through September. And Chester County Recorder of Deeds Ryan Costello had collected $31,000 through the quarter.

Schroder raised $88K this past quarter compared to Welch's $59K. I would not consider this a wide margin. Welch is new. I'm curious to see this quarter after he starts getting message out. He is gaining a lot of traction in Republican circles.

I think the more important here is that Schroder has been fundraising since early this year and he has only raised $109K. Compared to his Democrat contenders, this is not good.

Posted By: paulinPA | Oct 29, 2009 9:01:17 AM

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